


double, double, toil and trouble

by bluebot



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Fluff, Hogwarts AU, M/M, love potions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-24
Updated: 2018-04-24
Packaged: 2019-04-27 10:30:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14423499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluebot/pseuds/bluebot
Summary: As a Hogwarts prefect, Mark was no stranger to dealing with students stricken by the effects of love spells and potions. When his best friend confessed to him out of nowhere on Valentine's Day, Mark assumed he'd been slipped a love potion.





	double, double, toil and trouble

**Author's Note:**

> this fic's really cheesy and self indulgent but like? there's nothing better than markhyuck fluff you can't fight me on this

When Mark returned to their dorm, intent on stealing a half hour of sleep between his prefect duties and quidditch practice, he almost didn’t notice there was another person in the room. If Hyuck hadn’t spelled the bedcurtains aside for him, easing his entry to his four-poster, he likely wouldn’t have paused to lift his head in thanks. Mark would’ve collapsed, giving way to his bone deep exhaustion, and wouldn’t have seen Hyuck reach towards the pile of red and pink hued goodies lain in front of him atop his own fourposter.

As it was, Hyuck had issued a wordless spell to part Mark’s bedcurtains. Mark did raise his eyes to look Hyuck in silent recognition and gratitude for the simple, kind gesture. He didn’t miss the wrapped gifts piled up around Hyuck’s seated form. 

So, as Mark toed off his sneakers he made sure to tell Hyuck,

“Wait til I get back from practice to open any of those, okay?”

At Hyuck’s displeased expression, he elaborated, firmly.

“I’m serious. You don’t know how many students I’ve seen under a love spell because they didn’t check their Valentine’s gifts carefully. If you can’t wait for me to get back, just chuck them in the trash.”

Hyuck’s lips parted as he understood. He nodded, eyes wide, suddenly solemn. Every Hogwarts student knew love spells and potions were no joke. Despite that, all too many of them turned to using them in desperation, year after year. February fourteenth was only half finished, and Mark was already over it. 

Secure in the knowledge that Hyuck would wait, that he wouldn’t be risking himself over any chocolates, at least without Mark there to be sure he wouldn’t be hurt, Mark collapsed face first onto his bed. His eyelids slid shut, and even the rustling he heard from Hyuck’s bed couldn’t keep him from seizing his chance at sleep. He thought nothing could.

Then, as his breath evened and slowed, as he gave into his exhaustion, Mark detected a handful of precious words spoken in the softest tones.

“I seriously love you.”

Mark’s eyes snapped open. Suddenly, he wasn’t tired at all. Panic seized him. He bolted out of his four-poster, the movement shocking Hyuck. He looked at Mark with eyes as wide as saucers, freezing with a gift in his hand as Mark stalked over to him.

“What did you eat?” Mark asked, voice cracking on the last word. 

Hyuck must have taken something before Mark got back to the dorm. He must have. Hyuck had never… never even indicated he loved Mark. Mark would’ve noticed, surely he would have, with all the time he spent watching Hyuck when the other boy wasn’t looking. 

Some of Mark’s panic subsided as he decided that, without a doubt, a love potion was the source of Hyuck’s unprovoked… usage of the L-word. It was the only explanation. He exhaled a relieved sigh, as Hyuck’s eyes narrowed at him in suspicion.

“What do you mean, what did I eat?” Hyuck asked, testily.

“You don’t even remember eating anything weird today? Or maybe drinking from your goblet after leaving it unattended for a bit?”

Hyuck looked at Mark like he was losing it, but he shook his head slowly, indicating the negative.

Mark’s panic came back in full force. Maybe there was a memory modification element to the love potion? It was possible. He needed to take Hyuck to Professor Seo, get the antidote to him. And quick, before he opened his mouth and said something else that would make Mark even more panicked and confused.

He grabbed Hyuck’s arm, tugged him off his bed, sending a wave of his gifts cascading off his scarlet and gold bedcovers and onto the dorm floor.

“C’mon. We’re going to Professor Seo’s.”

“What? Why?”

Hyuck snatched his arm back out of Mark’s grip. Mark huffed in frustration. Wasn’t the love potion meant to make the victim more amenable to requests from his beloved? Why wasn’t he unquestioningly following Mark? Maybe, Mark thought with no small amount of trepidation, it was brewed incorrectly.

It dawned on him. If he was going to get Hyuck to follow him, he’d have to tell a white lie.

“I, uh, forgot my potions book in the classroom. I don’t want to go alone. Seo scares me.”

“No, he doesn’t. Seo adores you,” Hyuck crossed his arms over his chest, “you’re acting weird.”

Mark cursed internally. Out of their duo, he was the one who couldn’t lie for the life of himself. It figured he’d be the one forced to deceive Hyuck for his own good.

“I’d be bored if I had to walk to the dungeons by myself?” he tried again, turning to flattery in his desperation.

Hyuck uncrossed his arms, rolling his eyes.

“Why didn’t you just say so to begin with?”

Mark tried not to repeat the eye roll himself, given Hyuck’s condition. Even under the influence of a love potion, of course Hyuck would be weakened by the knowledge that he’s Mark’s best source of entertainment.

 

They rushed through the halls to the dungeons, thanfully not running into any mischievous students or poltergeists on the way. Hyuck whined the whole time, saying that Mark was far too excited for any rotten textbook, and was he sure he wasn’t hiding anything? Nervous, Mark assured him he wasn’t. Mark told himself that, if anything, Hyuck going along with his whims was only further proof that he was under the influence of a love potion.

He’d never been this indulgent with Mark before. 

Mark paused in front of the door to Seo’s dungeon classroom, Hyuck’s hand clasped in his, wondering how it was possible that the classroom could felt both too close and too far from Gryffindor tower. The damp air felt like it was seeping into his lungs with every inhale like syrup, languid and thick. He fought to take a stabilizing breath, casting a look at Hyuck. He was looking back at Mark, clearly trying and failing to be annoyed. His gaze was soft, concerned, brow furrowed. 

It scared Mark, the affection he could see on Hyuck’s face. Had he always been so transparent, or was it just the love potion? Would the potion’s antidote undo that? Would it leave Hyuck’s emotions illegible to Mark? 

Mark bit his lip-- he couldn’t let himself stall any further. Couldn’t wait a moment longer outside the classroom, not when his best friend was under the influence of a mind altering substance. Even if he felt momentarily conflicted, he had to stifle that. As he looked on at Hyuck, he caught his gaze flit down to Mark’s mouth, then flick guiltily back up to meet Mark’s eyes. 

Mark quickly released his lip from his teeth, feeling a bit like crying. 

“Potions book,” he managed to choke out. Hyuck nodded in an uneven jerk. Mark tore his eyes away from Hyuck and pushed the dungeon door open.

Professor Seo was crouched over a dusty tome, glasses perched precariously on his nose as his eyes danced over the text. At the sound of the door slamming open, he straightened, fingers adjusting his glasses with an ease that spoke to the automatic, subconscious nature of the gesture.

“Mister Lee,” Professor Seo’s curiosity was evident in the questioning tone of his greeting, “and Mister Lee.” he added, eyes widening, as Mark pulled Hyuck fully into the classroom, “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Mark forgot his book--,” Hyuck huffed.

“Hyuck needs a love potion antidote!” Mark blurted out. 

He felt his cheeks heat up at the sudden outburst. He forced himself to maintain eye contact with professor Seo, pleading wordlessly for his understanding, even as Hyuck snatched his hand from Mark’s. Suddenly, his palm felt far too cool in the dungeon air. He shivered. 

“I need  _ what _ ?” 

Professor Seo just raised an eyebrow at Mark. Mark felt the sob that had threatened to escape him just outside the door to the classroom claw its way up his throat. Why did it seem he was the only one who got the urgency of the situation? Hyuck needed the antidote as soon as possible.

“Mister Lee, what reasons do you have to believe your friend has been put under the influence of a love potion? He looks fine to me.”

“I-- He… he said he-- loved me,” Mark stammered, surprised at being asked to produce evidence out of nowhere. He turned to Hyuck, to find nothing helpful waiting for him. Hyuck only looked mildly nauseated as he fixed his eyes solely down at his sneakers, refusing to meet Mark’s gaze.

Mark understood that, though. He suddenly felt like he was going to be sick, too. The feeling worsened when Professor Seo burst into an uproarious peal of laughter. Mark looked at him, horrified. He’d never heard Seo roar with laughter before, and certainly not during so grave a situation as this. He hoped what he was witnessing was only a result of his further descent into madness, a hallucination produced after Hyuck broke his mind with his casual use of the L-word and with his errant eyes.

Professor Seo finally calmed himself enough to speak.

“Sorry about that, boys,” he said, breathlessly. And to his credit, he did sound apologetic, as he continued on to say “I suddenly remembered-- I promised Ten I’d help him harvest lacewings. It can only be done on the full moon, you know. I must be on my way now.”

He cast a stasis spell on the cauldron bubbling on his desk, a bubble freezing just on the precipice of bursting, and swooped out of the classroom. His shoulder brushed Mark’s, who noticed too late that he was in the way of the door, and wobbled as he was hit by Seo in the professor’s haste to escape.

“You two have a lot to talk about it seems. Don’t worry, I won’t be back for awhile,” with an impish look, Professor Seo parted.

The door clicked shut behind him, plunging the dungeon classroom into complete silence, stifling in its totality. Seo’s stasis charms might as well have been cast over Mark and Hyuck, for all that they moved in his sudden departure. 

Mark broke the silence, his confusion latching onto the easiest question his mind presented.

“It’s not even night time-- what did he mean ‘full moon’?” 

“You  _ idiot, _ ” Hyuck growled. Mark looked at him, was surprised to see Hyuck’s face had turned flaming red. He looked furious.

Maybe, Mark considered, Seo was right about Hyuck not being under the influence of a love potion. To the contrary, he looked rather like he wanted to strangle Mark. Mark took a step away from Hyuck, raising his hands.

“Look,” he began, throat constricted and voice small. 

“Don’t you  _ start,  _ Mark Lee. I don’t want to hear it,” Hyuck advanced on him, and Mark stepped away again, keeping more than an arm’s length away in case Hyuck decided he wanted to start swinging. 

“But the way you acted-- I thought for sure…,”

Hyuck’s hand went to his side, where he kept his wand. Mark watched the movement nervously, taking yet another step away from him. As he moved back, the back of his legs bumped up against a desk. Trapped. Still, he kept his hands raised. He didn’t want to provoke Hyuck’s ire any further by reaching for his wand.

“Do you really think that little of me? That I’d somehow let myself be given a love potion?” Hyuck’s voice cracked, and Mark realized with a jolt that his eyes were shiny, gone glassy with emotion. He was mad, but he also looked like he on the verge of tears. Mark reached for the right thing to say, something to alleviate his confusion and prevent Hyuck from getting any more upset.

“But you said you loved me. You were looking at my lips-- what was I supposed to think?”

Something in Hyuck’s body language changed. His expression shifted from eyebrows furrowed in fury to eyes wide in realization, to sudden resignation. A split second with so many emotions flitting across his face that Mark was left helpless in deciphering. Hyuck’s hand went limp at his side, releasing his wand.

“I thought you were asleep,” Hyuck’s voice was no louder than a whisper. Mark felt himself angling to catch his words, soft and fragile. They still sounded booming in the stillness of the classroom.

“You-- what?” Mark subconsciously matched his tone to Hyuck’s. Anything louder than a whisper felt like it would break the sudden, soft atmosphere in the midst of blooming, tenuously replacing the furor prior.

“I thought you wouldn’t hear me. You never have, before.”

“Donghyuck--,” Mark swallowed hard. It felt like his heart had jumped up into his throat, making it hard to breathe. Did that mean-- had Donghyuck meant what he’d said, then?

“You don’t have to say anything,” Hyuck continued, unaware of Mark’s confusion, too caught up in his own thoughts. 

He wasn’t looking at Mark anymore, not even with fury or frustration or sadness. Instead he was looking at a point far beyond Mark, over his shoulder. His lower lip trembled as Mark watched.

“We can just pretend this never happened.” Donghyuck said, finally. Mark shook his head. That, he would never be able to do.

“We don’t have to,” Mark said, voice level. He felt a sudden sureness, a clarity he hadn’t possessed since he’d walked into the dorm to see Donghyuck surrounded by presents from anonymous admirers (and had that really only been minutes ago? it felt like a lifetime). 

“What?” Hyuck finally met his eyes. There was something that might have been hope written across his features, tempered by doubt, something ugly that Mark would do anything to chase away.

“That wasn’t a love potion talking, then? You really love me?” Mark asked.

“Of course I love you. You’re my best friend,” Hyuck muttered as he began to raise his arms to cross them across his chest. Mark surged forward, off the desk, and caught his wrists in their path before Hyuck had the chance. 

“And you’re mine,” Mark took a shuddering breath, summoning the vestiges of his Gryffindor courage, “But are you in love with me, the way I’m in love with you?”

Hyuck’s mouth parted, forming a perfect ‘o’ and, for once, Mark let himself watch. 

“The way you--,” Hyuck repeated, and Mark saw the moment realization hit, “--oh.” 

Hyuck broke eye contact momentarily as he slid his arms down, so that he could hold Mark’s hands in his. Mark’s breathing hitched as he brought their hands down together and pulled Mark forward, coy smile spreading across his face.

“Yeah. I’m in love with you, Mark Lee. Even if you are the biggest idiot in Hogwarts.”

And Mark couldn’t even bring himself to care that Hyuck had called him an idiot. Hyuck loved him-- was  _ in love  _ with him, and it wasn’t because of some stupid potion. 

Heart soaring, far too excited, Mark moved forward to close the distance between them. He’d waited years for this moment, to taste Hyuck’s lips. Unfortunately, Hyuck had the same idea. Their foreheads collided, then they bumped noses.

It took a few seconds of fumbling readjustment, the space filled with Hyuck’s giggles, before they reached the right angle. Finally, Mark was able to capture Hyuck’s lips with his. 


End file.
